Offensive Personalised Number Plates In Sweeden

Offensive Personalised Number Plates In Sweeden

A Swede with a passion for offensive number plates has failed in his cause yet again, after transport authorities denied two of his latest attempts to create 'offensive' personalised plate combinations.

The man, from Varberg in southern Sweden, gained some media attention last year when he attempted to register a personal licence plate reading "3JOH22A".

The Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) rejected the licence plate request on the grounds of it being offensive, the reason for which is made clear when the combination is reflected in a mirror.

The same man has now made two further attempts to change his plate to "8UTT5EX" and "X32TTU8" respectively, but they were also denied, as they too could be considered offensive.

If not immediately obvious, the explanation for rejecting the latter combination is once again made clear when a mirror is introduced to the equation.

"We get a lot of requests and some of them are very subtle. Many see it as a sport to try and get a word through. This one was quite easy to reject," Eva Isaksen from the Swedish Transport Agency told public broadcaster SVT.

The Transport Agency's rules state that a personalised number plate ”may not be designed if it causes offence or harm to anyone else," including allusions to alcohol, drugs, sex, swearwords, religion or criminality.

The UK in particular has a relationship with personalised number plates. According to estimates by the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency), the UK reported an excess of two billion pounds in tax revenue from tax auctions over the past 25 years. As they are keen to state, an expression of interest in a particular plate by three people or more is enough to push the price of that Reg plate through the roof. It has also been documented that the buyers let their hearts take control of their heads when they bid for these plates.

Personalised number plate auctions are constantly rewriting the record books with regard to the highest price paid for a plate. The record currently stands at £518,000 which is quite impressive. The prices of these Regplates does not seem to be slowing down either.

Of particular interest is the recent auction of the highly-hyped 250 C Reg plate which sold for £21,500. This is a clear indication that the expectations for the prices of personalised number plates will continue to increase.